Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-01-01
Bill Nye Gets Down 10 the Bottom Facts
Of Stage Horrors and the Khan Khan.

new world ana rev other matters at
the same time.
Little do the soft-eyed sons of pros
perity understand to-day, as they walk
the paved streets of the west under
the cold glitter of the electric light,
surrounded by all that can 60 to make
life sweet and desirable, that not
many years ago on that same ground
their fathers taught the untutored saw
age by night and chased the bounding
buffalo by day.
All, all is changed Time in his rest
less and reSistless fight has filed away
those early years in the county clerks
Office, and these times are not the old
times. With the march of civilization,
notice that it is safer for man to at
tend theater than in the early days Of
the wild woody west. Time has made
it easier for one to go to the opera and
bring his daylight home with him than
it used to be.
1t seems but a few short years since
my roommate came home one night
with long red furrow plowed along
the top of his head where some gentle
man at the theater had shot him by
mistake. My roommate said that a tall
man had objected to the pianoist and
suggested that he was playing pianis-
simo when he should have played for
tissimo, and trolble grew out of this
which had ended in the death of the
pianoist and the injury of several dis
interested spectators
And yet the excitement of knowing
that you might be killed at any moment
made the trnater more attractive, and
instead of soaring men away it rather
induced patronage. OF course it pre-
vented the attendance of ladies' who,
were at all timid, but it did not cause
any falling off in the receipts. Some
thought it aided good deal especially
where the show itself didn't have much
blood in it.
The Bella Union was a pretty fair
sample of the theater in those days. It
was low wooden structure, with a per-
petual band on the outside, that played
gay and festive circus tunes early and
often. Inside you could poison your
soul at the bar and see the show at one
and the same price of admission. In
an adjoining room silent men joined
| the hosts of faro and the timid tender
foot gamboled DER the green.
Visited this place of amusement one
evening in the capacity of reporter
for the paper. / would not admit this,
even at this late day, only that it has
been overlooked by Mr.. Talmage since;
and if he goes through such All ordealin
the interest of humanity, | might be
forgiven for going there professionally
to write up the show for our amuse-
| ment column.
| The programme was quite varied.
Negro minstrelsy. sleigh t-of-hand, opera
boutfe, high tragedy, and that oriental
style of quadrille called the khan-khan,
if my sluggish memory be not at fault,
formed the principal attractions of the
evening.
At about 1920 or II o'clock the khan
khan was produced upon the stage. In
the midst of it a tall man rose up at the
back of the hail, and came firmly down
the aisle with large, earnest revolver
in his right hand. He WIS . powerfully
built man, with dyed maStache and
wicked eye on each sid" OF his thin, red
nose. He threw up the revolver with
little click that sounded very loud to
me, for he had stopped right behind
me and rested his left hand on my
shoulder as he gazad over on the stage.
| / nnnll 1icti,,ntIxr hanr hiC hranth q
and 20, for it was very loud breath,
with the odor of onions and emigrant
whiSkey upon it.
The orchestra paused in the middle
of snort, and the man whose duty it
was to swallow the clarionet pulled
seven or eight inches of the Instrument
out of his face and looked wildly
around. The gentleman who had been
agitating the feelings of the bass viol
laid it down on the side, crawled in
behind it, and spread sheet of music
over his head.
The stage manager came forward to
the footlights and inquired what was
wanted. The tall man with the self.
cooking credentials answered simply:
"By DaSherty Blank to Bank Blank
and back again, want my wife"
The manager stepped back into the
wings for moment, and when he
came forward he also had larg,' musi-
cal instrument such as Mr. Remington
used to make before he went into the
: typewriter business. / can still re-
member how large the hole in the
barrel looked to me and how | wished
, TINT had gone to the meeting OF the
Literary club that evening, as l had
at first intended to do.
Literature was really more in nv
. line than the drama. / still thought
that it was not too late, perhaps, and
SO | rose and went out quietly so as
not to disturb any one, and as | went
down the aisle the tall man and stage
manager exch tnged regrets.
| looked back i'll time to see the tall
man fall in the aisle with his face in
; the sawdust and his hand over his
breast. Then ] went out of the
) theater in an aimlesS sort of way
taking a northeastely direction as the
crow flies. do not think ran over q
mile or two III this way before | dis.
covered that l was going directly away
from home. l rested awhile and ther
returned.
On the street l met the stage mana
ger and the tall, dark man just as they
, were coming out of the Moss Agate
saloon. They said they were very
sorry to notice that got up and ctmt
away at point in the programme
+bo,. Iol ;ntrOdnan1 Ulpt thax